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One last reminder that there’ still time to register for the upcoming Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, September 29-30, 2022. If you can’t make it to the historic campus, there’s an option to attend remotely.

In our opinion, the Conference is the best of its kind because it brings together legal scholars and the practicing bar to talk dirt law theory and practice. We also a have a full supplemental program for law students, that covers property law and careers in eminent domain law, a recruiting session, a program on international property rights, and a program on land use law.

Registration for the Conference is ongoing, and you can sign up here.

Here is the full agenda. (We’ll be speaking on Panel #2, “Reshaping the Framework Protecting Property Under the Roberts Court.”)

Come on, join us!

Continue Reading Still Time To Join Us (In-Person Or Remote) For The 19th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference

Be sure to check out Anthony Alderman (MRICS, SR/WA, CRE, Senior Managing Director at Cushman & Wakefield), who guests on Episode 98 of Clint Schumacher’s Eminent Domain Podcast, “Eminent Domain in Pop Culture.”

You know we are going to really appreciate an episode “about depictions of eminent domain in popular culture – often a juror’s only prior exposure to condemnation law.” Whether it’s the vibe of contitution, or how eminent domain can show up in novels, Netflix, Russian and Australian movies, memes (and meme briefs), or nerding out on Star Trek metaphors. We love this topic.

But it’s not all distractions, because the episode also covers “what makes appraising for eminent domain acquisitions different from other appraisal projects as well as current issues of interest in the appraisal field.”

What a fun episode. Don’t miss it. Continue Reading It’s The Vibe! – Eminent Domain In Pop Culture

BK 2022

There’s still space for you to join us — preferably in-person, but remotely if that is not possible for you — at the 19th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, September 29-30, 2022, at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg.

The American Law Institute was kind enough to post a notice about the Conference and the ALI members who are on the speaking faculty here.

Registration for the Conference is ongoing, and you can sign up here. Here is the full agenda. (We’ll be speaking on Panel #2, “Reshaping the Framework Protecting Property Under the Roberts Court.”

In our opinion, the Conference is the best of its kind, and brings together legal scholars and the practicing bar to talk dirt law. So please come join us.Continue Reading Registration Underway – 19th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference (Sep 29-30, 2022)

Is there a more appropriate place at which to study property rights and dirt law than William and Mary Law School? After all, it is a stone’s throw from Jamestown, the place where there’s a good argument the concept of property law and property rights first took hold in the New World. As noted by author David Price in “Love and Hate in Jamestown – John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation” –

The introduction of private property for the common citizen had a salubrious effect on the owners’ sense of initiative, as John Rolfe would observe. By the end of 1619, he reported, the “ancient” (or longtime) colonists had chosen their allotments, “which giveth all great content, for now knowing their owne lande, they strive and are prepared to build houses and to cleare their grounds ready to plant, which giveth ……

Continue Reading Ye Olde Law 608: Eminent Domain & Property Rights, S5E1 @ William & Mary Law

Screenshot 2022-07-10 at 10-35-34 Amazon.com Eminent Domain (Brett Simmons) 9781954676220 Demmans Ronald D. Books

A “brash, wise-cracking unapologetic lawyer” gets caught up in “two innocuous words of legalese” and next thing you know, he’s embroiled in “lies, deceit, and ultimately murder.” Sound like your practice? (ha!) If so, then have we got a novel for you: “Eminent Domain” by Ronald D Demmans.

Yes, a novel where condemnation is a central plot point:

Brett Simmons and the town of Lenore are inextricably linked. Brett Simmons, the brash, wise-cracking, unapologetic lawyer and Lenore, the hometown he loves. Two innocuous words of legalese will lead Brett down a dangerous path of lies, deceit and ultimately murder. He has taken a look behind the curtain…the wrong curtain. He has seen too much and what he has uncovered could cost him everything: his career, his freedom, even his life. With the odds clearly stacked against him and the future of Lenore at stake, Brett engages in a…

Continue Reading New Novel: “Wise-Cracking Lawyer” Gets Caught Up in Eminent Domain … And Murder!

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following.

In City of Oberlin v. FERC, No. 20-1492 (July 8, 2022), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held FERC adequately explained why, in granting a certificate of public convenience, it relied in part on evidence that some of the natural gas in the pipeline was slated to go to Canada. 

Earlier, the court held FERC had not explained why well enough (or at all), and sent the case back down to give FERC the chance to do so. The handwriting was on the wall in the remand order because the court pointedly did not vacate FERC’s order granting the certificate: “we remand without vacatur, because we find it plausible that the Commission will be able to supply the explanations required, and vacatur of the Commission’s orders would be quite disruptive, as the Nexus pipeline is…

Continue Reading DC Circuit OK’s Pipeline That’s Already Built

Screenshot 2022-07-07 at 13-44-38 The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference

By now, you know that the 19th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference is set for September 29-30, 2022, at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia (register here – space is limited – fee ranges from free to $195 – a bargain!). And you know that our colleague Jim Burling is this year’s B-K Prize winner.

But now you know who is speaking at the Conference, and the topics: here’s the full agenda. The list of speakers is too long to list here but check out these topics:

  • Panel 1: The Importance of Property Rights: A Tribute to James S. Burling
  • Panel 2: Reshaping the Framework Protecting Property Under the Roberts Court (that’s the panel we’re speaking on)
  • Roundtable: Emerging Issues in Takings and Property Rights Litigation
  • Panel 3: Choosing A Property Regime
  • Panel 4: Property Rights in Times of Scarcity and Crisis

Who can …

Continue Reading Here’s The Full Speaker And Topic List For The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference (Sep 29-30, 2022)

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Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following.

Now before you get all worked up about the Texas Supreme Court agreeing that the private company proposing to build a bullet train between Dallas and Houston may exercise the sovereign power of eminent domain (see Miles v. Texas Central RR & Infrastructure, Inc., No. 20-0393 (June 24, 2022), remember that this is a case involving only the construction of Texas statutes. Not the court deciding whether the state’s delegation of eminent domain power conforms to some constitutional public use standard. 

That being said, the opinion may have limited reach (thank goodness) but is still worth reviewing for those of you not in Texas.

Property owners objected to the company taking their property, arguing that it did not qualify under Texas statutes delegating the state’s eminent domain power to a “railroad” and to “interurban electric railways.” This thing may…

Continue Reading Texas: Proposed Bullet Train Is An “Interurban Electric Railway” And May Exercise Eminent Domain (At Least It Isn’t A Fish)

Its deja vu all over again: like it did just a short while back, in Lafave v. City of New Orleans, No. 21-30358 (June 1, 2022), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit once again has rejected a takings claims “based on the city’s failure to honor a judgment of the Louisiana state courts.” Slip op. at 1.

Unlike the previous case, here the judgment being dishonored was not for just compensation, but a state court order that “call[ed] for the return of personal property acquired by the government unlawfully.” Id.

Here’s the story. New Orleans likes traffic cameras, and “used mail to collect fines for traffic violations captured by street cameras.” A class action lawsuit challenged the scheme, and eventually a Louisiana court determined the city lacked the authority to designate the Department of Public Works (and not the police department) as the enforcement authority.

Continue Reading The Keepings Clause: CA5 (Again) Throws Up Its Hands When Local Gov Refuses To Pay Back Money It Owes

On one hand, there’s nothing terribly surprising about the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion in Hlavinka v. HSC Pipeline Partnership, LLC, No. 20-0567 (May 27, 2022) holding that yes, “polymer-grade propylene” qualifies as an “oil product” under Texas statutes that allow a private pipeline company to take property to transport oil products, and that yes, a private pipeline counts as a public use. After all, the first sentence of the opinion sets the context for those of you who may not realize how important the energy industry is to that state:

Recognizing the important role that pipeline development plays in meeting our state’s manufacturing and energy needs, the Legislature grants common carriers the right to condemn private property for the construction of pipelines that transport certain products.

Slip op. at 1.

But on the other hand, the very last portion of the opinion gives a hint that maybe the court…

Continue Reading Texas: At Least One Customer Is Served So Pipeline Is A Public Purpose, But Let’s Loosen Valuation Rules For Energy Corridors